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White Rabbits, Melting Snow
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A few days ago, I was discussing with some friends the recent
incidents of bad cops doing bad things in Los Angeles. The City
may be paying more than $300 million to settle a lot of claims.
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We also talked about the shootings, beatings and torture in
New York. The Amadou Diallo tragedy (41 rounds); those two
boys shot down by cops in 1997 (who just got $1.8 million
in a settlement); Abner Louima, arrested in a case of mistaken
identity, sodomized with a broomstick by an NYPD officer while
two others looked on (and then covered it up).
We also discussed the 4 Ivy League graduates who have just
filed suit -- they say they were beaten and terrorized by
NY Street Crime cops. As we listed the awful events, piling
one on top of another, it began to sound, well, ominous.
THE RHETORICAL QUESTION
I'm not sure why, but I suddenly asked, "And some folks out
there actually want only the cops to have guns?"
It was a conversation stopper. The stunned silence -- lasting
at least a full minute -- seemed to speak volumes.
Many of my friends are liberal, and they want plenty of common
sense gun control. Some just want all guns banned. They
hate violence.
Probably most of them are like Mr. Raspberry, the Washington Post
columnist, who wants guns ONLY in the hands of law enforcement.
But I suspect that they are also like Mr. Raspberry when he can't
explain why he was glad when he recently heard that a very old
man saved himself using a handgun against a bad guy, in
San Francisco.
Occasional bouts of cognitive dissonance are a small price to pay
to have -- someday -- the safest big country in the world.
My abrupt question slowly got some reluctant but knowing nods,
and some serious looks. I knew I had an opening to say some things
about human nature, about corruption, and how things don't really
change just because we try to move around the ingredients, or try
to ban and destroy objects that we perceive as dangerous. Yes, I had
their full attention in that minute, I had them all snared inside one
of those rare, teachable moments.
And I let it go.
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Over the next few days, when time allowed, I reflected on my
own question. How and why did my offhand query catch my friends
off guard? What did they really see in the opening? I wanted to
know the why and the how of their reaction -- their silence.
I've made a few simple guesses. My friends who support heavy
gun control -- gun bans -- want to assume that cops won't abuse
their power. In fact, they have to assume this. Guns ARE power.
Guns bans are usually the disarming of the civilian population --
and not the police, the military, or other government agencies.
We will just have to trust them. The cops will hold the power.
It will be worth it, if it saves lives, and we feel secure.
But in our conversation, my friends had ticked off case after
case of police brutality, until the stage was set to see the
power issue in a different way. My question caused an unexpected
and uncomfortable context shift. Their view that "guns are only
for killing" magically morphed into "guns are for protection."
The persistent reality is that some cops do bad things. They are
human. And some will get caught -- sometimes. I wondered
how many have not been caught. We'll never know. When they are
discovered, they get headlines. The incidents get a flurry of
finger-wagging editorials, the cynical "I told you so's," the
professional ax-grinders. And the demagogues.
Sometimes the bad stuff comes in clusters, like we have right
now. If you get enough clusters, it's an epidemic, and it's in
all the national news magazines. Like it is right now.
But all that has really happened is that suddenly the bad cops
are visible, revealed.
WEREN'T THEY ALWAYS THERE?
Why didn't we see them?
A white bunny sitting in the snow is not noticed or seen, unless
we look very carefully, or have a reason to look. But the rabbit
is there, regardless.
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When the snow melts, as it always does, the white bunny will
be "suddenly" visible -- its white fur will stand out, in contrast
to the muddy brown background, the ripe slushiness caused by
the warm sunshine of spring.
But the rabbit was always there.
And now we can see him, against the background of dirt.
Cops with guns -- power -- among disarmed civilians are
wonderful, so long as the snow doesn't melt. But we know that
this is not natural or possible. Snow always melts.
So the black and brown bleeding bodies become our muddy backdrop,
and we "suddenly" get to see the bad cops. Yet it always seems to
surprise us, like we never knew the white rabbit was there.
We are shocked. We are shocked that the sun came out. We are
surprised that it's springtime. Again.
But we knew. We know that we knew.
So we lose a few people, when the snow melts in the poverty
pockets, and the boy-bodies pile up. We are outraged. We are
shocked. Some of us are grief-stricken. Others hold candlelight
vigils. Still others make veiled threats.
And in addition to these human tragedies, there is the monetary
devastation, our tax dollars paying settlements of $1.8 million
here, and $300 million there, to bring some compensation to the
victims of the bad cops who got caught. Caught on video tape.
Caught when someone cut a deal. Caught when the snow melted.
Yet if we always knew, somewhere in our hearts, then I must
wonder: are we, in some strange way, on some deep level,
willing to accept a certain level of police gun violence?
Here and there, a few murdered black people. Now and then, a
beating. A little torturing. Another shooting. How many times
did they hit that man? How many? Oh, my ....
"And some folks out there actually want only the cops to
have guns?"
Of course they do. It's as natural as the sun coming up again
tomorrow morning, and melting the snow.
Posted March 17, 2000.
© Copyright 2000 by Jon Haupt (JASPAR@aol.com).
All rights reserved.
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